Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #751066 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 250 pages

Synopsis
The 2030 decade is expected to see six "drivers" converge with unprecedented force in a statistical "spike" on the graph paper of life. Depleted fuel supplies, rampant population growth, poverty, climate change, famine and water shortages are all on a crash course that could plunge the world into a global dark age.Colin Mason aims to cut through the rhetoric, reams of often conflicting information and doomsaying to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is and the courses of action that we need to take now to avoid catastrophe. With over 100 priorities for immediate action to prevent crisis in the future, the book presents a way forward to a bright and prosperous future for all people.

About the Author
Colin Mason, a former foreign correspondent, broadcaster and SEATO adviser to the Thai Government, was a senator in the Australian Federal Parliament for nine years, as deputy leader of the Australian Democrats. He served on the Senate Standing Committee for Science and the Environment, a Select Committee on the effects of Agent Orange on Australian servicemen, and the first delegation of the Australian Parliament to China, and initiated the private member's bill that led to the salvation of the pristine Franklin River in Tasmania. He has published 12 books including the international bestselling novel Hostage and, most recently, A Short History of Asia which is currently a bestseller in its field around the world.

Customer Reviews

Ignoring the obvious demolishes a beautiful theory
The problem with Colin Mason's prophecy of doom is that at least two of the catastrophes he worries about are mutually exclusive.

If the world runs out of fossil fuels (one disaster) then it must perforce be 'deprived' of anthropic global warming (another disaster) because without the oil, etc., CO2 output will fall and the global warming danger will go away, willy-nilly. On the other hand, if global warming is to happen then we 'need' oil and coal to burn.

Mr Mason's failure to recognize or otherwise deal with this rather obviously fatal flaw tends to induce severe scepticism about his entire thesis.